BB

BB, originally uploaded by Mike Tittel.

In an effort to get back to my roots a bit and to get my creative juices flowing, I have started to do a photography "with a purpose" again. Here is an example. My world right now is work and family. SO I start here. A casual Sunday brunch at "Take the Cake" in Cincinnati.

I'm not in the darkroom anymore but it is still liberating to see the world through a camera.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Being Social

When you boil it all down as Mitch Joel did in "Six Pixels of
Separation", you need to have two things in place to facilitate a
social media dialogue:

1. Permission
2. Something to say

If you start with having great content then great dialogue can follow.

The Navy for Moms

Saw this billboard on my way to work. Great example of connecting user motivations and needs to an online platform. The Navy has in essence created an online platform to connect mothers of children currently in the Navy or considering joining the Navy.

http://www.navyformoms.com

Switching Banks and Brand Loyalty in the Digital Age.

So I have a dilemma. I have become so dependent on my cell phone to integrate my online and my offline worlds that I have come to the point where I may switch banks. I have been with my current bank since I opened my first savings account at the age of 7 years old. After numerous mergers and acquisitions and name changes I’m still there. But as I work more and have less time at home to sit in front of my computer or make trips to my bank, I need to work with a bank that suits me. (This sounds like a tv spot doesn’t it?) The fact that my bank has no mobile application that allows me to check my balances, bill pay online, and receive account communications on my phone is really bothering me. I need a mobile banking application. But they don’t have an app for that.

With banks like “Bank of America” creating robust mobile smart phone applications, the thought occurs to me that it might be time to switch banks. This opinion comes as a shock to me as just a year and a half ago I was a skeptic on just how much “use” I would get out of a smart mobile device. But now I’m a smart phone advocate and brands need to be keenly aware that loyalty in the digital age means more than providing good deals and good product. You have to connect with your audience in the ways they wish to connect.

So as I wait a few more days to see if my bank will be introducing my mobile application, I am reminded that brand loyalty in the digital age is fickle, can occur or be broken quickly and is incredibly competitive. Modern consumers are complicated, demanding and can change their minds on a dime. Alarming thought for the modern marketer and the brands they serve.

The Feedback Loop

Analytics, measurement, social media, CRM, and direct marketing all have in common one thing. It is all about the feedback loop. Brands or people try to engage and connect a customer, audience or prospect, listen, learn or respond to their actions or communications and finally, make a decision to determine the next most relevant communication or engagement. It is a loop. Sometimes it goes on and on, sometimes it stops immediately, sometimes the communications remain the same, sometimes they change. But it is all about communication and conversation.

In rock 'n' roll music a feedback loop can be both bad and good. Feedback during a live show can be annoying, piercing and physically hurt or at least turn away your audience. It disconnects the listeners from the experience. But feedback loops of tonal, beautiful musical notes can become a bed of beautiful music that accompanies a song. Bands like "The Beatles" and "U2" come to mind as music that has leveraged this technique.

So what kind of feedback loop is your brand engaged with? Putting out screeching and obnoxious experiences that turn away customers and prospects? Things that "sound" like marketing spie and offer no chance for reciprocal dialogue? Or something that people connect with, want to engage with over and over again and appreciate? SOmething that people want to dialogue with and respond to?

Use the feedback loop to make good experiences better .

Competitive Assessments

I have recently been involved in improving many of the processes and deliverables for the digital practice at GyroHSR. Across our industry a tool that is always daunting and hard to define is the competitive assessment of web properties, used to find opportunities for competitive advantage.

Two critical things I have learned looking at our processes:

1. The most important aspect is defining your criteria upfront and sticking to them. You can't analyze everything, so define what you are looking at and forget what you aren't.

2. An assessment should be scientific and objective. Comparisons should "show" not "tell". Leave the recommendations and "opinion" for a "Recommendations and Observations" sheet in the back of the deck.